Acupuncture?

[DJHall]

My mother has chronic RLS and will try anything. Has anyone tried acupuncture and what has been the effect?

[involuntarydancer]

Tried it - spent a lot on it.

Acupuncturist was initially supremely confident she could help me. As well as the needles she had me crawling for 20 minutes a day and hanging from a tree (by me arms).

Gradually her confidence waned - it would have been amusing if it weren't for the money and the false hope she had engendered.

Eventually we parted ways with her subtly blaming me for having a co diction she couldn’t cure.

I have never heard of anyone for whom it was hugely successful (for Rls).

[Sunshine458 in reply to involuntarydancer]

I spent $600+++ on acupuncture and all kinds of things that was supposed to work ... I hate needles of any kind and I kept my eyes closed but I even let her put a needle in my forehead between my eyes!!! I had stone looking things left inside my ears for weeks!! DID NOTHING FOR MY RLS!!!

[Kaarina Administrator]

Hi DJHall,

If you use the Search box at the top of the page and type in Acupuncture quite a few past threads will appear.

From the replies, it would appear that unfortunately the majority of those that have tried it have not found it helped their RLS.

[involuntarydancer]

If she hasn’t done so already, Raising iron levels can be very effective (get a serum ferritin test - get the actual figure - they often just tell you ‘normal’ but normal is very different for Rls - latest thinking is we should be over 100).

Many people have success with restrictive diets.

Adding in magnesium and vitamin D seems helpful

Make sure she’s not taking any drugs etc that are known to exacerbate restless legs.

For me (and many others) only aggressive drug treatment really has any significant impact.

[DJHall in reply to involuntarydancer]

Thankyou for your reply. When you say "aggressive drug treatment - what is that?

[involuntarydancer]

Well, there really are no soft options for Rls when it comes to prescription drugs. Dopamine agonists (mirapexin, ropinerole, neupro etc) all bring substantial difficulties (often a lot more substantial than the prescribing medical professional appreciates) and for me they also barely work. Gabapentin/pregabalin seem to need to be taken in large quantities to be effective on their own and the remaining treatment option is opioids which bring their own problems.

Then there are the (sadly) illegal options of Kratom and cannabis. Which work for many but have the obvious drawback of being illegal.

For myself I work my way over and back through these options trying to stay one step ahead of the legs.

[Hooc]

I haven't had acupuncture but use electrode acupuncture using a tens machine and electrodes works for me

[Jumpey]

Didn't work for me.x

[involuntarydancer]

Yes there seems to be far more positive feedback about the tens machine as a treatment than for acupuncture. Maybe it would be worth getting a tens machine for your mother, DJHall? I think you can hire them (maybe from boots?). You could try that first to see if it is any good.